The NBA.  All the action of crocheting and the excitement of soccer.  I say this after watching argueably the two best teams in the league (Detroit and San Antonio) slog their way to an 85-70 win for the home team in Motor City.

Don't get me wrong.  The NBA has magnificently talented players who can turn into human highlight reels faster than you can say ESPN.  But maybe that's the problem.  Too much focus on the jam and not enough on the hard work that generates open court basketball.  The Knicks and Lakers of the late 60's this is not.  Heck, it isn't even as watchable as a good Kentucky Colonels-Indiana Pacers game from the glory days of the ABA.

For the game both teams barely shot .400.  Put that in some perspective.  Your 45 year old, overweight next door neighbor who is sleeping off a turkey and egg nog overdose on your couch about now can hit .400 if open on the perimeter.  After the game the star being interviewed was Chauncey Billups.  Yes, the Chauncey Billups who went 6-17 and led all scorers with a blistering 20 point performance. 

The sequence that said everything you need to know about the game (and by inferrence the current state of the NBA) was when Brent Barry of the Spurs tried to shake and bake and ended up laying on the floor having faked himself loose from the ball.  The Pistons picked up the loose ball and initiated (insert gasp of excitement) a fast break.  Not just a fast break, but a 4-1 fast break punctuated by a missed dunk.

Let that sink in.  A 4-1 fast break that wasn't converted because a pass might have messed up a dunk opportunity.  By the best team in the league.  With a very good coach in Flip Saunders.  In a key game.  NBA action...it's fantasmic. 

I'm glad I have memories of Jerry West and Oscar Robertson.  That I saw the Larry Bird Celtics constantly moving and cutting to create scoring opportunities.  And even that I saw Bob Verga draining three pointers with the regularity of a Swiss timepiece.  For those of you just starting to watch basketball I guess you can cling to the memory of Chauncey Billups scoring 20 points and Tony Parker scoring all 8 of the Spurs first quarter points as his girlfriend, Eva Longoria of "Desparte Housewives" watched from the stands.  As for me, I think I'll turn on Univision and see if there's a soccer game on.